Cooking appliances in the form of cooktops are well known in the prior art. Cooktops typically have one or more burners along with a flat cooking surface such as a griddle or grill. The construction of the typical burner assembly allows for food to drop under and liquids to seep under the burner, which requires removal of the cooktop to clean the burner assembly. Also, when meats and other foods are cooked on a griddle or grill, the cooking generates grease run-off that must be cleaned up after cooking is completed. In addition, food and liquid spilled onto a heated surface may become baked on if it is not quickly removed. The resulting baked-on food soils can be very labor-intensive to remove and often require the use of dangerous or corrosive cleaning compounds and chemicals. It may also be necessary to remove the cooktop for service and maintenance, such as to gain access to the gas system in gas stoves.
Lift-up cooktops for domestic ranges are well known. However, the typical apparatus employed for a domestic lift-up cooktop would not work for a commercial-type cooktop. Commercial-grade cooktops used in restaurants or institutional kitchens are typically very large and heavy, often weighing in excess of 500 pounds. Even if the commercial cooktop could be easily lifted, the sheer volume of food and grease that must be cleaned up in a commercial or institutional kitchen makes the cooktop and the area surrounding the cooktop much more difficult to clean in place than the typical domestic cooktop.
A thorough cleaning, which often requires flooding the cooktop with soap and water, is typically not practical while the appliance is in place. In order to maintain cleanliness and proper sanitation, it is often necessary to remove the appliance to allow maintenance and cleaning of the appliance and the areas around the appliance. In some cases, for example, restaurant cooktops are periodically disconnected and removed from the kitchen so that they can be thoroughly cleaned, sometimes by pressure washing or a similar procedure. Disconnecting and moving a large commercial cooktop often requires several people to accomplish as these appliances are not only heavy but also often awkwardly shaped and difficult to move in and out of the limited or confined spaces in which they are installed.
Further, the commercial cooktop is obviously out of service while it is being moved and cleaned. This can pose significant problems for kitchens that must operate 24 hours a day or for situations where a food spill needs to be cleaned immediately while the cooktop is being used.
What is needed is an improved apparatus for lifting and cleaning a large commercial-type cooktop.